[samuraistuart]

Well, what to add, hmmmm.....

I can say it is a tough steel, not a whole lot of wear resistance. Honestly, my opinion is that most people (me included!) would be hard pressed to differentiate many of these low alloy carbon steels. When wear resistance tests are introduced....maybe. Maybe you could tell a steel like 52100 vs 1080+. I think you could probably fairly easily differentiate a steel like 115W8 vs 1080+ in all out wear resistance, but wear resistance doesn't always translate to edge holding/retention.

More thoughts....to me, 80CrV2 is simply a finer grain 1080 with some added toughness over straight 1080. The vanadium content is low, and will not form primary vanadium carbides to any appreciable amount, and is only there to prevent grain growth. The chromium content is also low, but is there for a purpose...making the steel somewhat tougher, and somewhat more forgiving in HT, like 5160 is an extremely tough version of 1060/1065 due to the added Cr.

You can get a differential hardening line with 1080+, but not a true "hamon". My first kitchen knife was a santoku with a hardening line, 1080+. I've always appreciated Alpha Knife Supply for having that steel on hand. Aldo has it, too. The reason 80CrV2 is termed 1080+, from what I have read, is that Chuck at Alpha Knife Supply, when he first got this steel, termed it 1080+, because his customers were thinking that "80CrV2" was a chinese steel (that name almost does sound like the chinese steel designations). So he termed it 1080+ to help clarify that it was certainly NOT a chinese steel. I think the term suits the steel quite well. It is, after all, 1080 with a dash of V and a dash of Cr....and that's about the extent of it. There are a few out there who simply cannot see the correlation, claiming that 80CrV2 is something out of this world, and is way more than simply a "1080 plus" steel. Sure, the performance of a given steel isn't solely based upon it's % composition, but for crying out loud! It IS IN FACT just a fine grained, tougher 1080 steel! Nothing special about it. The specs allow for some Nickel content, but the stuff we are seeing and using doesn't have Nickel.

Any application where 5160 would be used, 80CrV2 would be a good candidate as well. Known mainly for high toughness. Speaking of Chuck, he also has 8670, which is another extremely tough carbon alloy steel. I've used it some...and I really do like it.